Moving: working on a room to work in

As you may recall, in an effort to make our home more functional for us, the Husband and I have been working on a plan to re-arrange half the rooms in our house (you can get the details here.)  We still have a lot of work to do but I thought it was time for an update.  I'll start with the new office.

 Here's a peak at the room from the hall when it was still partially the music room.  The Husband's workbench was still assembled and the picture of Louis was still hanging on the wall.

Things were still being boxed up and instruments were still being carried down stairs.  The drop leaf table had just been added to the room to function as our temporary desk.
The next task was to give everything a nice coat of fresh white paint.  But first I had to remove glue spots from the ceiling where stars had once been stuck by the previous owners.  Here's an up close few of what I was working with:

After a little google search I came up with a couple of remedies that I thought I would try.  First up, Goo Gone.  That stuff takes off anything sticky.....or maybe not.  Next, Murphy's Oil Soap.  Even with a lot of elbow grease it still wasn't working.  I had  also read something about heating a putty knife with a hair dryer and scraping it off.  I wasn't quite up for that so I decided to try a few more things.  Magic Eraser came next and failed like the rest.  Then I called in the big guns, I called my Mom!  She is amazing and knows how to solve problems so after some discussion about my options I finally decided to try acetone (nail polish remover).  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!  It actually worked.  It also took the paint off but that was okay because I would be repainting too.  It worked best when I used a cotton ball - just like I was removing polish from my toes.  I was so happy!!  Now, we could really start painting.

  
We also finished up the hall which was WAY overdue.  It's a soft gray (Gliddon Ruffled Feathers) like the living room and stairs.  In our family the Husband is the roller and I'm the trimmer/cutter-inner.  It makes for quicker work when you know your job. 

I thought a lot about what shade of white to paint the office.  (I know that sounds ridiculous.) I wanted it to be white because I work with color all the time and it's so nice to be surrounded by something clean and neutral that isn't competing with the project at hand.  I also wanted white because the room has lots of angles and weird ceilings.  It's nice to have everything painted out so that everything looks less cluttered.  Benjamin Moore's White Dove (OC-17) is my all-time favorite go-to white but it was a lot easier just to send the Husband around the corner to the Home Depot to pick up a few gallons.  I could have had them color match it for me but in the end we were lured by a name, Martha Stewart's Popcorn (in honor of my in-law's dog).  It turned out to be a really great clean white.

 

We then assembled the giant stack of boxes that became our new Epedit shelving.  I can't tell you how excited this made me.  This is when the room really started to look like our new office. 

Here's a little tease.  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what it looks like!